Has Money Made The World Truly A Better Place?
We explore the theory of the evolution of society in financial terms: Has society evolved since the advent of money, and has the world become more positive?
I’ve been having some problems lately which have lead me to wonder, has the world become a happier one due to money? Has the world changed in terms of happiness from perhaps the feudal ages to where we are today? Consider the fact that we today possess hundreds of times more money than the kings & emperors of yester-year.
Now, I don’t believe in studies that „determine“ happiness. I’ve said thousands of times that it is nothing more than a state of mind chosen by the one who attracts it. Has the world become a more positive one due to money? That’s the question that ought to be asked.
No doubt, due to the advent of technology, life has become much more convenient. However, does technology or anything at all, affect one’s state of mind? Look at any business street in the world. Take New York’s Wall Street, for example. During lunch hour, you see crowds of thousands of young men and women of the highest caliber milling down that fabled street.
However, this leads me to ask, are they happy? They are paid perhaps a few hundred thousand dollars a year, they have their Harvard Business School degrees, they have their thousand-dollar power-suits. Yet, look into their eyes, and unmistakably you will find that many of them have not reached contentment in life.
Focus your attention now on the slums of a Third World country, perhaps Ghana, Zambia, or even the poorer parts of Europe, such as Latvia. There you see children with no dreams, no hopes, jumping around with a football at their feet. You hear their laughter, you hear their screams. You feel that undeniable aura of euphoria at its peak. Where do these children end up? Working for a dollar a day at a Nike factory? Or perhaps smuggled off to the British Channel to get killed picking oysters? For one dollar a day?
Has the advent of the greenback aided us?
The unmistakable difference between those hundred thousand-dollar-a year men and those dollar-a-day ones (at least when they were young) is the lack of worries. You see, worries pollute the mind, and worries (unless you are one of the lucky few who know that happiness is only a state of mind) are only intensified the more you achieve.
Now, I’m not saying, in any sense, that people with more money are unhappier. Nor am I implying that poorer people are less morose. The gist of what I’m trying to tell you is that worries make one unhappy. And there is no denying the fact that worries have grown to cloud the world, moreso in this age and day than perhaps 100 or 200 years ago.
„Why?“ is the question on the lips of philosophers, scientists who study happiness, and psychologists.
Now, as the world has grown in its years, the messages from the past have gone unheard. Today, go to the streetcorner of any business capital- Milan, Madrid, Manchester, DC, Singapore, New York- and I’ll be willing to bet (despite the fact that I’m not betting man) that any five of ten people are crying out in worry and unhappiness.
They push themselves to the limit, daily, to earn that extra ten thousand dollars. But tell me, whatsoever for? For those that believe that money will bring happiness- banish that thought. Nevertheless, money can aid in happiness, if it is used in the correct spirit.
Now, this leads me to my question on why worries crowd the world. The globalization of Earth by conglomerates of different natures- from the likes of Nokia, to Donna Karen International- tempt Man’s desires. I’m not saying this is wrong. We all have an undeniable right to earn cash. Yet, each day, newer, more desirable products come from these companies. Man’s wants and desires are enticed daily. Satisfaction is unable to be found. This leads to Man become unhappy, and, ultimately, suicidal.